This article will take you 1 minutes 55 seconds to read – written by Enzo Lauretta

Try to imagine a dinner with a great chef from a very special tavern in Madrid Retiro, a unique menu, an impressive location and a lovely blonde girl serving your favourite beer every time you sip the last drop.

It’s a true story that San Miguel made happen last week, organizing a dinner inside the Museo del Ferrocarril, discovering why the Selecta is the greatest beer.

I drank lots of different beers in my life, from several countries, but I do believe that you don’t need to be a beer specialist to understand and taste the difference of the San Miguel ingredients compared to all the other beers on the market.

And after that which was already an incredible once in a lifetime experience I also had the chance to meet David with a tiny group of friends on the occasion of a degustation of San Miguel Selecta in a very characteristic bar of Las Letras, called Kaixo.

I discovered that San Miguel comes from Manila, Philippines, which is a city I love and I have been to 4 times. It really surprised me.

And I learn a lot during these two events, because the only way to learn is to explore, to be in the front row enjoying the experience with all the senses.

Johann, who was our storyteller at the Exploratorium dinner, all his talk along the dinner was focused on the tastes (sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, umami or savoriness) and how Chef José Luis Martínez from Taberna y Mediahas developed the menu of the dinner in order to match the Selecta tastes with his premium quality food.

After a talk with Chef José Luis Martínez I understood why San Miguel has chosen him. First of all for his passion, it really seems to me that I was full of joy when talking about the preparation of his creations, second because he’s an explorer so that this melting’ pot of different countries, tastes, ingredients and culture was crucial point of the dinner, mixing and matching top quality food with the exclusivity of San Miguel Selecta.

I mean it is not just a matter of matching food with beer, all the courses were cooked or marinated with San Miguel Selecta.

And you know you is a great fan of the beer foam for cooking?

Ferran Adria, one of the most famous chef in the world, a revolutionary man for the cuisine and restaurant world s widely credited with starting the trend of foam on food, always preferring beer or sparkling wines to the still once.

With David few days after all the attention was on San Miguel Selecta, the history of San Miguel, the development of Selecta, taking into consideration all the ingredients with a five senses approach, from the hearing to the taste, analysing the smell of hops and of more complex tastes like chocolate, galleta and cinnamon.

We admired the color of the beer with the sight, and did a three tasting phases analysis on how different they were one between each other.

It was a blast. Stop thinking about everything else and just turn on the focus on what we were drinking and the sensations that we felt.

You can only reach excellence with knowledge and what’s better than exploring for accumulating more and more knowledge. This is the spirit and the vision of the Exploratorium project that we had the chance to live twice, first with the “mesa nomada” inside the Museo del Ferrocarril and than with the cata viajera at Kaixo in Las Letras.

There are lots of “mesas nomadas” you can participate, unfortunately not in Madrid, but that’s that’s an explorer challenge, to move forward.

I have a serious problem with quantities, I know that this is really unprofessional but for the rice, cooking for example for two, I always see the level of the rice bag and that’s eat.

I think the best way to find the right unit of measure is always to try, every time you change an ingredients it might require more parmesan cheese at the end or more time to cook.

Just try it, always, many times.

For the beer it was easy I used it all, one bottle for two people, but you can put more or less, depends on the tastes.

This recipe has three main ingredients: prawns, zucchini and beer. This are the three main flavours you will perceive eating this risotto recipe.

Let’s start from the beginning!

You need two pans and one pot. In the pot you have the broth and in the first pan the risotto cooking and in the second the prawns.

Cut the scallion for the two pans, you’ll need two different soffritto, add a portion of oil and a portion of butter. When the scallion is becoming brown you put the zucchini in rice pot and the prawns in the other one. When the zucchini are getting cooked, after 10 minutes add the rice.

After 5 minutes you start with the bottle of beer in both pans, half for the prawns and half for the rice.

When the rice has absorbed all the beer you start adding the broth, but not all together, the risotto is cooking slowly, mixing it constantly.

Every time you see the broth completely absorbed you can add more until you taste the rice is cooked.

In the meantime the prawns are slowly cooking, I like to add Italian tomato concentrate (Mutti) that gives a special taste to the cooking water that just before the end of the risotto cooking will be added in the risotto pan.

And that’s eat, when rice is almost ready do this trick with the prawns water that will add a more fish flavour to the rice and start cleaning the prawns.

It’s my first written recipe so be kind, and for any doubts don’t be afraid to write me, I’ll be happy to help :)

This article will take you 1 minutes 35 seconds to read – written by Enzo Lauretta

“It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed.” Actually, It was a friday night, Friday 17th March 2017, considered by many as one of the unluckiest days of the year, but not by me because I received my Hop in the Box with a selection of estonian craft beers. It was also Saint Patrick’s Day, so what a better time to receive a box of beers?

What is Hop in the Box and what does this have to do with estonian craft beer?

Hop in the Box is a craft beer club that sends a monthly selection of awesome beers to its members. March was dedicated to Tanker, a refreshingly different estonian craft beer produced in small village 20 km outside Tallinn.

When I was leaving in Milan I had my craft beer trusted pub, which was one of my favourite place to hang out with friends, but here in Madrid I still haven’t found a similar place. Generally speaking my ideal craft beer consumption should be at home, but I don’t have a trusted shop and I know it’s not the same with supermarket beers.

So thanks to Hop in the Box I had the chance to know more about the story of these guys who like to break the rules of tradition and experiment with different raw materials, sourcing the freshest ingredients from farmers to create new and interesting flavors, since they started they have produced more than 60 different beers.

I was really impressed by the labels of the beers, they are all well designed with different graphics but as a writer I know that you should never judge a book buy the cover, so the same rule is for beers and labels.

Now, since the most important step in experiencing craft beer is tasting it, let taste it!

8 bottles, 4 tastes, all completely different. I enjoyed pairing the beer with my home cooking, or just tasting a refreshing pale ale from the fridge without a tapa.

Sweet or Bitter? Crispy or Fruit? Blonde or Dark? Sometimes, it is all a matter of taste, isn’t it?

I want to focus on my favourite, it was like meeting the love of your life and you know you can stay together just for two days, until the next love at first sip, probably in the next Hop in the Box, from now on Hop(e) in the Box. If you are curious my very favourite between the 4 tastes was “Taiskuu”, a white IPA beer, 6,5 % ABV, thanks to the Belgian Esters and fruity sweet aroma that you can immediately notice.

My own 5 reasons why I think Hop in the Box is a good (the greatest) idea:

Travel the world by tasting different beers from the comfort of home

They will rang your door, it’s like Christmas but every month

The excitement of a surprise box, which is priceless

They spread the craft beer culture helping local producers to be distributed

https://madridiana.es/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/hop-in-the-box-espana.png336800Dianahttp://madridiana.es/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/madridiana_logopirou.pngDiana2017-03-20 19:10:412017-03-26 13:44:00Love at first sip with Hop in the Box

About

Madrid is a big city, and like the internet you can find everything and you can find nothing. READ MORE »

Newsletter

Cookie and Privacy Settings

How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

Google Analytics Cookies

These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.

If you do not want that we track your visist to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:

Click to enable/disable google analytics tracking.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Click to enable/disable google webfonts.

Google Map Settings:

Click to enable/disable google maps.

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Click to enable/disable video embeds.

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.